Lucy’s first blows were ineffectual. She punched the monster in the side of the head as her first attack and although the knuckle duster was magically strengthened there was no magically enhanced attack that she was expecting.

WARNING: [Ring of Pugilism] has failed.

[Ring of Pugilism] has failed to function as intended. This is due to the effect of destabilised magic in the environment.

Mana cycling through this weapon will have to be adjusted before weapon can be used in this environment.

“Oh sweet baby god of suffering.” Lucy muttered as she kicked off the hard rock on the chest of the elemental. She looked at the bronze knuckle dusters for any damage, although the description was for a ring they were the traditional look of a thugs tool you would see a dodgy bouncer in a bad part of town use. They were un-damaged but so was the monster. She had to duck the monsters swing back at her and started to think of options. All her ways to damage this monster were magical. She had started to work on dispelling rituals for the array’s effect but this far down the deep tunnels they would need to be adapted and the monster wasn’t going to give her the time to draw them out in chalk as she couldn't use Rune Lore yet.

Her only option she decided was to try and manually take this monster apart with bronze rank strength and work on her aura control like James had. He not only managed to release his familiar but effect a full body transformation. She focussed on the monster as she concentrated on her aura. She had it used in tight to protect her from the natural array and she explored relaxing it slightly to expand and see how it reacted. She was bombarded by the sensation of the array that made her wince and recoil.

The monster chose that moment to rush Lucy. She had stars in her eyes and felt her body being pressed by all directions. The monster lunged with both its stubby arms she took a glancing blow as she tried to dodge while reacting to the backlash of aura. She flailed and managed to strike the monster in the torso. There was a familiar flash of magic and chunks of rock came off as she hit.

“So thats what its going to take.” She said to the monster as they backed away from each other for a moment.

………

Kyra woke up on the cot bed and was missing her husband. She sat up and looked around to only find Ragnar and James sat having breakfast.

“He was gone before we got up.”James said around a mouthful of food.

“It is worth adventuring with your family just for this.” Ragnar chipped in as a greeting, holding up a mug of coffee.

“He left? Kyra asked sleepily confused.

“He left a note.” James said, focussing on his food.

She put her hand on the edge of the cot and a metal bangle dropped down her arm. She looked at it and saw it was a crude design, a metal bangle battered from a wider band of metal with a heart on one end and the other end looped round and hooked through. It made her smile as she got up having not felt him put it on her in the night. She walked over to James and stole a slice of toast off his plate and snatched the letter off the table.

My Kyra,

My absence in the forge will be missed, the other students are able to sustain themselves somehow and are not fighting the effects of the array and are hard to keep up with as it is.

The array struggle is getting easier with every day down there, the lack of rest and meditation makes it hard to keep going but they have not offered rest and I do not want to appear weak to them.

Orcnig is a strict teacher, no student is allowed to make anything until they have made a suitable shield first. He explains that this means the student has grasped the fundamentals of armoury, to make a shield you have to understand all the materials available, the weapons it will go up against and how they’re made so you know how to defend against them and lastly the magic and how it interacts with the materials.

Now that I have made a shield (he was very impressed with the Bahumut scale as a material) I can make some other things I have planned with his help. I miss working with Lucy but I’m learning how I can incorporate her into my work.

The Stonewallers are naturals at this work, natural for them I guess. They seem to have affinities for earth, fire, forge and combining the magic with materials.

Orcnig has not yet started work on the weapon for the contract, he says the class is part of the process and he will know when to start.

I miss you fiercely and you will not be able to peel me off you when all this is done but I cannot pass up such an opportunity whilst we are here. I would encourage you to see the locals about their earth affinity to see if there’s anything you could learn from their way of using it.

I hope your adventure went well with Ragnar and if you leave with him again the shield will protect you both.

All my love to you and the others.

Teddy. X

Kyra had already thought of asking the Stonewallers for an insight into their earth shaping but with Teddy’s encouragement she made a plan to spend some time in the town.

She sat down at the table and pulled a plate and some food towards her. “So what’re your guys plans now then?” She asked.

The guys looked at each other.

“Wanna go kill some monsters?” James asked.

Rangar took out his hand axe from his belt and thumped it down with the back of the blade. “To adventure and glory!” He roared and smiled at the pair.

James turned to Kyra. “Think thats a yes. We’ll go out and see what we can find the same way you two did. What’re you planning? Want to come?”

“No, I wouldn’t want to ruin the boys trip, would look rather odd, two huge guys and their tiny blonde mascot. I’m going to see more of Stonewall, be around for the other two while they go through their trials.”

“Fair enough. Ragnar explained what happened at the trial with Lucy. I’m happy she’s not in any danger, those guns down there will come back on if she needs them to and theres nothing coming for her that she can’t handle. If we plan on being out a few days then come back to see how she got on it should be ok?”

“Sounds good to me. As stressful as this stop is proving to be I think we’ll all be better off after it!”

Ragnar had stood up and sorted his adventuring gear. He easily hefted his new shield and slung it over his back over his double headed axe. “This adventure has already paid out more than a humble adventurer deserves! It is time to pay some back. Come James Mitchell, it is time to put monsters to the axe!”

James raised an eyebrow then shovelled the last of his breakfast into his mouth, wiping his beard with his sleeve and stood up. He transformed his right arm into an arm of a creature from Pallimustus. It was something between the head of a hammerhead shark and a preying mantis arm, the end result was something like a natural double headed axe. The vambrace caused it to be sheathed in metal and he raised it aloft.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Let’s put some monsters to the axe!”

………

Sebastian watched them unfold a buggy and tear off into the distance from the other side of the canyon. He had been watching them for over a week now. First he had been sent out by his mistress Beatrix to spy out any opportunities on the adventurers.

Sebastian was bronze rank himself, he leaned towards an assassin class and was suitably stealthy. He had followed the blonde adventurer with the bearded axe man the previous week and had watched them work. There was nothing to be gained by trying to snatch two of them even if he had the power. If Beatrix as a silver ranker had underestimated just the blonde then he wondered what the others would do to get one of their family back.

Now that he saw the two biggest men depart together he collected his things from the small camp he had set up. He was in no rush as tracking was a speciality of his with several essence powers in that vein.

He wondered if this was a pattern, that most of them would stay below with some of them venturing out to train. He wrote it all down for Miss Beatrix, she wasn’t a bad boss to have. Some of her dealings weren’t exactly above-board but he was ok with that and had his own shady past. He knew she wanted results fast but would listen and understand why he hadn’t made any moves yet.

He noted the direction the two men were taking and made a decision. He would have to test them out to see how capable they were. He mounted his lizard and shot off with surprising speed to meet a group of local bandits that owed him a favour.

……

Lucy was exhausted. She squat down and hung her head. She hadn’t been this tired since she got to this world.

The elementals kept coming. James was right that as she adapted it summoned more and more of them. The first two monsters were rock elementals and the third was an earth. She had struggled with the fourth which was a fire elemental and while she could now reliably channel her mana through the knuckle duster which had the ability to effect non-corporeal enemies which the gaseous fire elementals counted as, it meant getting up close and personal and she now sported a few burns to her clothing. That fight had forced her to focus and she now had a few wands she had figured out how to use.

She heard a hissing sound coming towards her from round the corner. She stood up and centred herself, taking a mental deep breath. A smoke elemental came round the corner like a dirty ghost. It hurtled towards her.

She raised her right arm, knuckle duster still in place, wand in her left hand. She tried again for the hundredth time and weak faint runes streamed down her arm. She smiled and pointed the wand through them. The resulting fire blast going through was noticeably enhanced but the rune circle fizzled and disappeared. The smoke monster burst into flames from the inside.

………

The surrounding area of the canyon was loose scrub with a few small groups of woods spread out between the yellow sandy rocky floor. There were lots of small canyons and crevasses and piles of loose rocks and boulders that sometimes formed caves and a few times they came across cave complexes that went down into the canyons.

By the second day of fighting together James and Ragnar had each others measure. James enjoyed meeting other peoples energy, assimilating himself to match. He did this in the coastal village on their last trip back from Vitesse with their unique parlance. Bringing out his inner Viking was not a chore to him.

They had worked on a few strategies. They had the raw power between the two of them to both blitz attack most groups of monsters and powerful single targets. For complex fights James had the ability to become adaptive and support Ragnar who was the stronger blitzer.

They had found a tiny village, barely more than a dozen houses and a one stop shop for everything. They were talking to some of the locals, as it was such a small settlement there was no adventure society notice board and they were asking if they had seen anything nearby that they could take care of.

They had been offered tea and accepted, while they were chatting they saw a dust cloud in the distance fast approaching the town. James kept an eye on it as they talked and nudged Ragnars elbow to let him know he was off to take a look. He made his aura as inconspicuous as he could, his control of it so much better after his time below. He snuck out the back and climbed a house slightly taller than the others then looked out towards the dust cloud. He used his eagle vision power and zoomed in on the lead cloud.

He saw about a dozen riders, mounted on giant lizards with saddlebags across their hind quarters. They shimmied like their smaller brethren but with incredible speed, the riders sat behind their necks on saddles were stationary while the body undulated side to side behind them. He focussed on the riders and saw they all wore rough leathers, carrying an assortment of large weaponry, looking more for intimidating than being a useful combination for a group. They were mostly younger men with a few older thrown in, they looked mean and knew exactly where they were going.

[Heads up. Large group of riders, I’d suspect they’re a gang, ask the locals then tell them to keep me a secret, you’re visiting on your own then I can be a surprise if we need it.] James said to Ragnar over the group he had set up between the two of them after inviting him as a guest to the interface.

[I understand you warrior.]

James stayed on the rooftop and watched the riders come in, they circled the town, riding round and round kicking up dust which unfortunately came in and settled on the carefully kept clean town. A half dozen of the men got off their mounts and made their way into the village, from where he was hiding on the rooftop James noted that they also grabbed their collection of long axes, pole arms, spears and in one case a spike ball on the end of a six foot metal pole.

Ragnar held his ground, most of the villagers scurried away into their houses, wanting no part of the gang. The man who stood with him was the current appointed spokesman of the town, he had no wife or family to take in his child and so held his daughters shoulders as she stood in front of him. Ragnar looked down and smiled at her through his big beaded beard and passed her a sweet with a leaf wrapper. He then unslung his new shield and rested the bottom of it on the ground and leant on it casually as if it had been heavy and he had taken it off to rest, it subtly covered the little girl from view from the approaching men.

The men fanned out in front of them, creating a front line rather than staying as a group. The sand was still in the air as the others kept circling the village causing a light dusting.

“Ere, we saw the village an thoughts we oughta check in and see if yous all right, seein as yous under our protection see?” The leader said. He wore a long leather riding coat with a high split at the back to facilitate it draping either side of his mount. He wore huge knives at his belt that reminded James of Teddy’s reasoning for wearing a bandolier of throwing Bowie knives across his chest.

“I’m sorry sir, I, I, I don’t quite know what you mean?” The villager stuttered out.

“Whassa matter wif you? You seems scared. This nobody threatening you? Thinking he’s so big with his big shield? Maybe we outta show him he ain’t so big and he wont bother you no more.”

[Careful Ragnar, this is obviously what they’re here for, the other men haven’t taken their eyes off you and the two near me have been talking about ‘the other one’.]

[Peaceful resolutions do no dishonour to Hero, we shall see the outcome yet no come to blows.] Ragnar replied diplomatically.

“Lo, well met traveller. A find band of warriors you seem to have. We have no quarrel here and peace is with us all.”

“What you fink yous tellin me eh? Maybe I’ve telling you we have a problem, don’t tell me different.”

“I don’t mean to counter your proposal good sir. If I have caused grievance than forgive me. I will make my departure so that you have no reason to bare ill-will.”

“No. You’ve done it now. The twelve of us can take on both of you.”

“Both of us?!” The villager said, his voice going high pitched in distress.

“Not yous, the other one of him.”

“No one has said anything of another warrior with me…” Ragnar pointed out.

The gang leader looked slightly embarrassed at being caught out of his shallow performance of trying to look like they hadn’t been sent looking for the two adventurers. It passed quickly as it turned to anger.

“Get him, find the other one!” He shouted, spittle flying from his mouth.

Ragnar hefted his shield, his kinetic power raised his double headed axe from his back and he grabbed it with his free hand, idly swinging it with the one hand as if it wasn’t a two handed axe. He backed up, keeping the man and his daughter at his back and pushed them into a house which opened up to accept them then bolted the door, leaving Ragnar out front. The gang all levelled their weapons at him and spread out to surround him in a semicircle facing the house.

“Boss I thought there was meant to be two of them?” One of them said.

“Shut up skinny, theres one here then we’ll find the other. Easier to take one at a time than two of them.”

“How about three?” James asked as he strode in from the back left of the group. A snarl from the rear right announced Koda approaching from that direction. James was already ‘suited up’ in his mud rhino armour and carrying his Staff of the Everglades.

The gang leader looked nervous, he had six men and that meant he still had two to one odds but he didn’t become gang leader by fighting with fair odds.

“I’ve got more you know!” And he shot off a fire power into the sky, an obvious signal for reinforcements.

“I don’t think they’ll be that keen to join us.” James said.

Since he saw the gang’s dust cloud he had been lacing the village with snakes. They instinctively knew friend from foe so they were no danger to the villagers and they acted roughly within the boundaries that James meant them for. They had hidden to allow half the gang entry then arrayed themselves in a large ring around the village. The quirk of his summoning power meant that a climate appropriate version of the summon appeared, fearsome rattlesnakes with hooded heads looking intimidating with the much larger constrictor variant also had the hooded heads and some had two of the large tails. James had also spread the word and a large multi species flock of birds descended in a cyclone., forming an unnerving ring of feathers between the rest of the gang and the village.

There was a long lull as the gang leader waited expecting his reinforcements to come. James leant on his staff watching him, Koda sat on his ass like a human toddler and Ragnar hooked his axe onto the top of his shield while they waited for the man to make a decision.

The decision was made for him however. An aura spike of panic so powerful they could feel it through the village. The birds scattered and flew away and they saw what was causing the panic. A huge monster was approaching the large dust cloud being thrown up. It was of Kaiju proportions with a huge rectangular head its body was thin and long with small arms like a T-Rex. It’s legs looked unsuited to working in coordination, two rearwards bent legs on each side with another forwards bent leg on each side. It roared as it approached and the sound and the silver rank aura preceded its short arrival.

The gang around the outside fled, charging their mounts in the opposite direction. The gang leader didn’t give any direction, they all fled immediately, all thought of fighting the two adventurers forgotten in their haste. The first man through the circle of snakes was bitten for his trouble and the second was bitten and took poison damage, the third was tripped and taken down by a constrictor snake and James had to wave his hand to make it vanish in a puff of rainbow smoke to let the man run away.

James, Ragnar and Koda walked to the side of the village facing the silver ranker. Here was no conversation needed as they prepared themselves, they couldn’t leave the village defenceless. James looked at the retreating gang fleeing as fast as they could.

James sighed. “Everyone wants to be a gangsta, until it’s time to do some gangsta shit.”